A mask is only powerful and meaningful when it is in motion in front of an audience. The audience, along with the accompanying musicians and attendants for whom the masker performs, is a very necessary part of a successful masquerade

The Egyptians believed that death was simply a temporary interruption, rather than complete cessation, of life, and that eternal life could be ensured by means like piety to the gods, preservation of the physical form through Mummification, and the provision of statuary and other funerary equipment. Each human consisted of the physical body, the 'ka', the 'ba', and the 'akh'. The Name and Shadow were also living entities. To enjoy the afterlife, all these elements had to be sustained and protected from harm

Dr Gautam Chatterjee has studied Indian History as his academic specialization. His Ph.D thesis was on Social History. Dr. Chatterjee has done extensive archival research on various aspects of Indian Culture and Heritage. He has written many acamedic papers on Historical subjects and for common man he has been studying many aspects of Indian culture and did field study on various subjects.

The sacred temple masks of Barong and Rangda are powerful protectors of the temple and village. The Barong is a gentle, clumsy creature with a leonine face, a great clacking jaw and a flowing white mane, that stretches nearly two metres long when animated by two male players, one in the bead and one in the bind parts. The costume is richly ornamented with gilt mirrors and gold-painted leather, and reflects the light as the creature moves in its comical animal-like shambling gait.

By: Christopher Baker
The Balinese language has no separate word for art. To create is an integral part of existence; an activity as natural as planting and harvesting rice. Painting is everywhere, everywhere sculpture. As Noel Coward observed: "it appears that each Balinese native from the womb to the tomb is creative." Around Ubud and Mas, in Gianyar province, the shortest walk becomes a magical mystery tour of homegrown art, flourishing in courtyards where chickens scratch in the dirt and titiran birds coo-coo from their cages.

The Healing Power of Mask-making
Katheryn Trenshaw is an American artist and workshop leader from Kalamazoo, Michigan who has recently moved to Devon, England. Throughout the U.S. and Europe she has exhibited her work and led workshops rooted in healing through creative expression, ritual, and movement
To book a workshop, organise a lecture or an exhibit, or to receive more information please contact:
Katheryn Trenshaw, P.O.Box 3, Totnes TQ9 5WJ, Devon, England

The dance dramas performed on Java and Bali probably originated in ancient rituals honoring the ancestors and for the deities of planting and harvest. Later, Hindu and Islamic religious beliefs added to the richness of the ceremonial stories...+PHOTOS

My interests include African masks. Collection of African masks.
Masks have also be used to discipline women, children, and criminals. For example, in Africa, a mother might paint a scary face on the bottom of a water gourd to make sure the child followed her directions. Along the Guinea coast of West Africa, many realistic masks represent ancestors; the masks symbolize sanction control when worn. The Dan and Ngere tribes of Liberia and Ivory Coast use ancestor masks as intermediaries for the transmission of petitions or offerings of respect to the gods.

Mexico is home to many colorful and festive fiestas, each a reflection of the local culture and traditions. Come experience one of Mexico's unique fiestas, the Corpus Cristi fiesta in Suchiapa, Chiapas, Mexico, full of masks, dances and processions.

"Composed broadly of the two aspects "ritual worship" (saigi) and "celebration" (shukusai)1, Japanese festivals involve a wide variety of symbolic contents, and are supported by unique organizations, based on the principles of "harmony" and "opposition."2 In this paper I want to interpret the relationship between such symbols and organizations through the medium of a theory of cognition.
Human perception is composed of three types of cognition: concrete sensory cognition (kankakuteki ninshiki), abstract conceptual cognition (gainenteki ninshiki), and what might be called an intermediate kind of cognition, namely, representational cognition (hy?sh?teki ninshiki), a form which is involved with everyday perception while still retaining some of the unique features of sensory cognition. The existence of symbols assumes the presence of representational cognition and conceptual cognition, while pure sensory cognition is excluded from the activity of symbol formation......."